Now for something completely different, turning from Juneau's wildlife to Juneau's inner life.  Nestled in an intensely physical location and populated with charismatic and non-charismatic animals, Juneau has also nurtured an intimate and lively cultural scene.

Theater Alaska is a prime example. It offers skilled and exciting productions peopled with performers working at both a high technical level (no missed lines, ever, plus clever set and costume changes) and a high level of enthusiasm.

In 2023 Theater Alaska staged William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. The production featured high energy and a very satisfactory sorting out of the identity confusion that Shakespeare often adopted as a plot device. A comedy playwright can't go wrong by allowing the audience to be more perceptive than the characters, and by then closing with happy enlightenment and familial restoration.  Here are a few images from the Treadwell Office Building performance.

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Then, in 2024, Theater Alaska produced Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen's novel as rescripted by Kate Hamill.  Terrifically staged, with crackling dialogue (mostly taken, wisely, from Jane's original) and a dose of manic energy, the production was variously staged at Treadwell, the Arboretum, and points between, in an extended run of what for the cast and crew was surely both a labor of love and exhausting.  The novel, of course, got everything right in exploring both period manners and abysmal then-prevailing social policies of England (primogeniture especially), and the play emphasized the exact failings of society and policy that created the threat faced by the sonless-Bennet family. Jane could have turned this story line into a darker, pre-Dickensian drama; instead, she mined the personal foibles of the Bennet, Collins, Wickham, and Darcy/deBourgh principals for entertaining jeopardy and conflict and then a satisfying resolution. The entire cast was completely in synch, and always in character. The photos reveal how closely in every scene each actor, even when not speaking, listened attentively to whoever was talking (except, of course, Mr. Collins, Mrs. Bennet, and Lady Catherine deBourgh, none of whom listened attentively to anyone else).

The Treadwell performance of June 28 produced these sample images:

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And the July 6 performance at the Arboretum produced these images:

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It was a pleasure to see all three of these performances. It was an even greater pleasure photographing them and then, while selecting representative images on a big display screen, getting to relive those performances, recall the lines, and enjoy again these vivid productions.  

There are, by the way, three galleries on my website that collect many more images from these three performances. Please take a look at them if you would like to see more of these Theater Alaska productions.

Twelfth Night: https://bobeastaughimagery.zenfolio.com/p288289510

Pride and Prejudice (Treadwell):  https://bobeastaughimagery.zenfolio.com/p731955370

Pride and Prejudice (Arboretum):  https://bobeastaughimagery.zenfolio.com/p187889824